Focusing on the suspension of the Swiss investigation into Bank al-Taqwa, the program notes the circumstances leading to that dismissal: failure of the US, Saudi and Bahamian authorities to provide key documents undermined the investigation. The untimely death of key witness Ali bin Musalim didn’t help either. Beyond al-Taqwa, the broadcast sets forth analysis on the past present and future of al-Taqwa’s parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood.

Rumored to be on the verge of breakup, the Brotherhood might go underground, if international pressure grows too great. The Brotherhood has been making a bid for legitimacy lately. Some within the Bush administration and related think tanks feel we should be courting the Brotherhood, which has been able to present a janus-faced organization to the world. While engaging in real democratic activity where feasible, the organization also is the foundation of Islamist terrorism and Islamic fascism over the decades. One should never overlook the fact that the Brotherhood and Bank al-Taqwa are deeply connected to the Norquist/Rove/Islamist milieu within George W. Bush’s GOP.

Program Highlights Include: Bin Musalim’s apparent involvement in the Hunt family’s attempts at cornering the silver market in the early 1980’s; the Saudi collaboration with the Hunt silver scheme; the World War II-era origins of the Iraqi Islamic Party (the Iraqi branch of the Brotherhood); the German Muslim Brotherhood’s pivotal role in the organization’s world-wide operations; the role of German Brotherhood (IGD) alumni in the founding of Bank al-Taqwa; the IGD considered as an operational and historical paradigm for the Brotherhood’s globalized operations.

1. One of the most important developments in the cover-up of the 9/11 investigative trail is the suspension of the Swiss investigation into Youssef Nada and the Bank al-Taqwa. (For more about Bank al-Taqwa and its connections to the Third Reich, elements of the US intelligence community and the GOP, see—among other programs—FTR#’s 343, 354, 416, 454, 455, 456, 462, 464, 473, 514, 515.) “Swiss prosecutors suspended one of the most celebrated investigations into alleged terrorist financing, saying there is insufficient evidence to bring the case to trial. Although the investigation wasn’t dropped and the suspects’ names weren’t cleared, it is a partial vindication for Youssef Nada and Ghaleb Himmat, who were accused by Washington of using Nada Management Organization and their Bank al-Taqwa to support al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the U.S., the two men and three of their associates were placed on a terrorist-financing list that was adopted by the United Nations, effectively freezing their assets and making it impossible for them to travel. Those restrictions remain in place. . . .”(“Swiss Won’t Bring Big Teror-Finance Case to Trial” by Ian Johnson; The Wall Street Journal; 6/2/2005; P. A11.)

2. “ . . . Mr. Himmat said in a phone interview that prosecutors ‘have seen there is nothing at all. Now we have to keep struggling to clear our names for our children’s sake.’ Swiss prosecutors, who led the international investigation, said the decision isn’t a defeat. Prosecutor spokesman Hansjurg Mark Wiedmer said the charges weren’t dropped because ‘there are very serious doubts in our office about the people being investigated. But there was not enough to bring them to trial.’” (Idem.)

3. The investigation was hampered by the failure of the Bahamas Bank al-Taqwa to cooperate with this investigation. The Saudis also withheld critical evidence. As we shall see in FTR#514, the U.S. authorities also withheld critical information deemed essential to the al-Taqwa investigation. “Mr. Wiedmer said financial authorities in the Bahamas, where Bank al-Taqwa was registered, refused to answer numerous requests for help. In addition, the bank’s books were stashed at an undisclosed private address in Saudi Arabia, he said, and without them, prosecutors were stymied. He said Messrs. Nada and Himmat weren’t obliged to hand over the books. ‘This was the essential gap in the chain of evidence,’ Mr. Wiedmer said. Officials in the Bahamas attorney general’s office didn’t return phone calls requesting comment. . . .” (Idem.)

4. Note the George Wolfe letter about Mr. bin Mussalim. The late Mr. bin Mussalim’s untimely death also helped de-rail the Swiss investigation. Mr. bin Mussalim’s demise is covered below. “ . . . Washington appears to have made extensive efforts to provide Swiss investigators with U.S. government information about the alleged terrorist connections of Nada and Al Taqwa. In a Feb. 4, 2002, letter to Swiss authorities, George Wolfe, U.S. Treasury deputy general counsel, said that U.S. government information indicated that Al Taqwa had ‘long been thought to be involved in financing radical groups’ like Hamas and several North African Islamist factions. According to the letter, as of ‘late September 2001’—after 9/11—‘bin Laden and his Al Qaeda organization received financial assistance’ from Nada and a now-deceased Saudi associate, Ali bin Mussalim. The letter claimed that since the 1980’s, Nada and Mussalim ‘following the pullout of the Soviet Army from Afghanistan, [had] been providing direct investment services for Al Qaeda, investing funds for bin Laden, and making cash deliveries on request to the Al Qaeda organization.’”(“Probe Closed” by Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball; Newsweek; 6/3/2005; p. 1 [of 3].)

5. Again, note the significance of the Wolfe letter about bin Mussalim: According to the letter, as of October 2000, Bank Al Taqwa, a Nada entity with an offshore banking license from the government of the Bahamas, ‘appeared to be providing a clandestine line of credit for a close associate of Osama bin Laden. This bin Laden lieutenant had a line of credit with a Middle East financial institution that drew on an identical account number at Bank Al Taqwa.’ The letter also noted that Nada had ‘personal ties’ with Saddam Hussein and that one of his fellow Al Taqwa directors, retired Swiss journalist Ahmed Huber, had ‘extreme anti-Israel views,’ had admitted meeting Bin Laden followers in Beirut, and had defended the 9/11 attackers.’” (Idem.)

6. Mr. bin Mussalim was found dead, a month after the Wolfe letter became public! A forthcoming book by Guillaume Dasquie (the co-author, along with Jean Charles Brisard, of Forbidden Truth) charges that bin Mussalim had a Saudi passport. “A Swiss-based businessman accused by the US Treasury of providing financial help to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda carried a Saudi diplomatic passport, according to copies of documents contained in a book published on Thursday in Paris. The documents include a letter from the US Treasury to the Swiss authorities, which says that al-Qaeda and its leader received financial assistance from the businessman Ali bin Mussalim ‘as of late September 2001’. They also include a copy of Mr. bin Mussalim’s diplomatic passport. The disclosures, contained in Al-Qaeda Will Conquer (Al-Qa’ida Vaincra), by the author Guillaume Dasquie, will be uncomfortable reading for the Saudi government, which has disputed any suggestions of official complicity in the attacks of September 11 2001.”(“Swiss-Based al-Qaeda Suspect Had Saudi Passport” by Stephen Fidler; Financial Times; 4/27/2005; p. 1.)

7. Could Mr. bin Mussalim’s death been the result of foul play? “The January 2002 letter from George Wolfe, then the US Treasury’s deputy general counsel, says Mr. bin Mussalim ‘has been providing indirect investment services for al-Qaeda, investing funds for bin Laden, and making cash deliveries on request to the al-Qaeda organization.’ The letter links him to the now defunct Bank al-Taqwa and its founder, Youssef Nada. Both have been named by the US and United Nations as providers of terrorist finance. The existence of the letter has been previously reported by some news organizations, but Mr. bin Mussalim’s diplomatic status was not emphasized. According to the book, Mr. bin Mussalim was found dead in his residence in Lausanne last June, a month after reports of the US Treasury letter first emerged. . . . [Emphasis added.]” (Idem.)

8. An intriguing aspect of the late, unfortunate Mr. bin Mussalim’s career concerns his illegal activities in the U.S. Those activities involved collaboration in the attempted cornering of the silver market. Principal figures in that were the Saudis and Nelson Bunker Hunt, son and heir to the late H.L. Hunt. Bunker Hunt has been a prominent far-right activist for many years, most recently recognized for his role in Oliver North’s off-the-shelf operation to support the Contra guerillas in Nicaragua. “ . . . Mr. bin Mussalim’s role in controversial financial dealings goes back to the early 1980s, when US prosecutors accused him and others of attempts to corner the silver market. . . .” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

9. More about the Hunt/Saudi collaboration in the attempted cornering of the silver market:“ . . . DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s sources in Washington learn that before he left, Abdullah met the heads of the Dallas-based Hung Private Equity Group to discuss private investments in the company. More than 20 years ago, Abdullah and other Saudi princes were heavily invested with the group and suffered major losses when the price of silver collapsed. [Emphasis added.] His conference with Hunt’s directors aimed at displacing some of these bad memories with advantageous Saudi investments in the United States. . . .”(DEBKA-Net-Weekly Issue #204, 5/6/2005.)

11. There had been reports of the Brotherhood fragmenting and going underground, in light of the heat applied internationally on its organizations. How the suspension of the investigation into Bank al-Taqwa will affect this remains to be seen. “On the face of it, a little-noticed report in a London-based Arabic-language newspaper last week seemed to signal a major victory in the Bush administration’s international campaign to crack down on alleged financiers of Islamic terrorism. According to the Nov. 11 edition of Al-Sharq-al-Awsat, the Muslim Brotherhood Organization, an international fundamentalist movement that spawned many of the world’s key Islamic extremist and terrorist groups—including Al Qaeda—recently held a secret conference at which its leaders discussed whether to dissolve their organization in the wake of Washington’s moves to crack down on some of its leading members and corporate organizations.(“The End of the Muslim Brotherhood?” By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball [Newsweek]; MSNBC.Com; 11/24/2004; p. 1.)

12. “But like other developments in what the administration calls the global war on terror, the alleged move by the Brotherhood to abolish itself may have less substance than meets the eye. Indeed, it may even mean that efforts by the U.S. and its allies to move against financiers of Islamic terror groups will become more difficult. U.S. intelligence and diplomatic sources point out that some Arab nations banned the Brotherhood years ago. Notable among those countries is Syria, where former president Hafez Assad’s brutal crackdown against the Brotherhood in the early 1980s left thousands of militants dead. Instead of driving the brotherhood out of business in Syria, however, the crackdown there forced some of its leading members into exile in countries like Germany, where Syrian Brotherhood expatriates ultimately helped to recruit to the cause of Islamic jihad a group of Hamburg polytechnic students who later became 9/11 hijackers. Other Brotherhood activists in Syria simply went underground for years, only to resurface later inside Syria with new organizational names, under which the current Syrian government of the current Syrian president, Bashar Assad, son of Hafez, allows them to operate under the watchful eye of security agencies. . . .” (Idem.)

13. Note that some American analysts and diplomats believe the U.S. should be courting the Brotherhood as a strategic ally. “ . . .Peace in our time! . . .” “. . . Some federal agents worry that the Muslim Brotherhood has dangerous links to terrorism. But some U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials believe its influence offers an opportunity for political engagement that could help isolate violent jihadists. ‘It is the preeminent movement in the Muslim world,’ said Graham E. Fuller, a former CIA official specializing in the Middle East. ‘It’s something we can work with.’ Demonizing the Brotherhood ‘would be foolhardy in the extreme’ he warned.”(“In Search of Friends Among the Foes: U.S. Hopes to Work with Diverse Group” by John Mintz and Douglas Farah; The Washington Post; 9/11/2004; p. A01.)

14. “The Brotherhood’s history and the challenges it poses to U.S. officials illustrate the complexity of the political front in the campaign against terrorism three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. FBI agents and financial investigators probe the group for terrorist ties and legal violations, while diplomats simultaneously discuss strategies for co-opting at least its moderate wings. In both sectors of the U.S. government, the Brotherhood often remains a mystery. The Brotherhood—of al-Ikhwan al-Muslimun, as it is know in Arabic—is a sprawling and secretive society with followers in more than 70 countries. It is dedicated to creating an Islamic civilization that harks back to the caliphates of the 6th and 7th centuries, one that would segregate women from public life and scorn nonbelievers.” (Idem.)

15. Note the role of Saudi oil billions in helping to establish the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States. (Nada and Himmat sired six children in the U.S. between 1979 and 1984. For more about this see FTR#455.)“In some nations—Egypt, Algeria, Syria, Sudan—the Brotherhood has fomented Islamic revolution. In the Palestinian territories, the Brotherhood created the Islamic Resistance Movement, or Hamas, which has become known for its suicide bombings of Israelis. Yet is also a sophisticated and diverse organization that appeals to many Muslims worldwide and sometimes advocates peaceful persuasion, not violent revolt. Some of its supporters went on to help found al Qaeda, while others launched one of the largest college student groups in the United States. For decades the Brotherhood enjoyed the support of the government of Saudi Arabia and its oil billions, which helped the group expand in the United States. . . .” (Ibid.; pp.1-2)

16. The U.S. recently detained, and then released, the head of the Iraqi Muslim Brotherhood. Note that his party was formed in 1944 at the direction of the Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, a loyal ally of Nazi Germany. This party—like the rest of the Brotherhood at this time—was undoubtedly allied with the Nazis at an underground level. “U.S. troops detained the head of Iraq’s largest Sunni Muslim political party on Monday, according to party officials, police and the man’s wife. South of the capital, two suicide bombers attacked a crowd of policemen in Hillah, killing 20 and wounding nearly 100 . . . . The arrests came on the second day of Operation Lightning, a massive Iraqi-led anti-insurgent offensive in Baghdad that Abdul-Hamid’s party opposes, believing security forces will trample on innocent people’s rights.”(“Iraqi Muslim Leader Detained; 20 Killed” [AP]; p. 1.)

17. “Abdul-Hamid was taken from his home in the western Baghdad suburb of Khadra at about 6 a.m., along with his three sons and four guards, said party-secretary-general Ayad al-Samarei. Al Samarei accused American soldiers of raiding Abdul Hamid’s home and confiscating various items, including a computer. U.S. military officials could not immediately confirm the detentions. Iraqi officials were also reluctant to talk about the issue. . . .” (Idem.)

18. “The Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) will not adopt violence as an approach to resist the U.S.-Anglo occupation of Iraq, the party’s Secretary General Dr. Mohsen Abdul Hamid said Wednesday, April 23. Speaking to IslamOnline.net, Abdul Hamid rejected any kind of cooperation with an occupation-installed government. ‘It’s abundantly clear that we reject the presence of the U.S. occupation in Iraq, but we will not use violence in resisting it,’ he said. ‘Armed confrontation is useless and we will resist (the occupation) peacefully. The party and other Iraqi religious and national factions are on board when it comes to this, no doubt.’”(Article excerpted from IslamOnline.net; 4/23/2005p. 3.)

19. Note again the World War II origins and affiliations of Mr. Hamid’s Brotherhood offshoot. “ ‘The parties in Iraq are a dime a dozen . . . Anybody can stroll five persons together and form a party,’ Abdul Hamid said, referring to the anarchy and free-for-all looting that swept Iraq. ‘But the IIP (Iraq’s Muslim Brotherhood) is a time-honored party that dates back to 1944, when Imam Hassan al-Banna (the founder of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1928) dispatched his close ally Dr. Hussein Kamal Eddin. But the then government did not allow us to name the party after the Muslim Brotherhood and we instead established the society of Islamic brotherhood, which played a pivotal role in whipping up religious zeal in Iraq at that point in time,’ he added [Emphasis added.] . . . .” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)

20. Its janus-faced stance on violent jihad has given the Islamo-fascist Brotherhood considerable operational latitude. It can credibly present itself as “pro-democratic” and actively pursue military jihad selectively around the world. The following article sets forth the evolution of the Brotherhood in Europe. Much of its success is rooted in maintaining extremist goals and methods while maintaining credible, established social and cultural status. Recall as you read this that Saudi petro-dollars have established the Brotherhood in a big way right here in the USA! “Since its founding in 1928, the Muslim Brotherhood (Hizb al-lkhwarTal-Muslimun) has profoundly influenced the political life of the Middle East. Its motto is telling: ‘Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur’an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.’ While the Brotherhood’s radical ideas have shaped the beliefs of generations of Islamists, over the past two decades, it has lost some of its power and appeal in the Middle East, crushed by harsh repression from local regimes and snubbed by the younger generations of Islamists who often prefer more radical organizations.”
(“The Muslim Brotherhood’s Conquest of Europe” by Lorenzo Vidino, Middle East Quarterly; Winter 2005; p. 1.)

21. “But the Middle East is only one part of the Muslim world. Europe has become an incubator for Islamist thought and political development. Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations. Unlike the larger Islamic community, the Muslim Brotherhood’s ultimate goal may not be simply ‘to help Muslims be the best citizens they can be,’ but rather to extend Islamic law throughout Europe and the United States.” (Idem.)

22. “Four decades of teaching and cultivation have paid off. The student refugees who migrated from the Middle East forty years ago and their descendants now lead organizations that represent the local Muslim communities in their engagement with Europe’s political elite. Funded by generous contributors from the Persian Gulf, they preside over a centralized network that spans nearly every European country. These organizations represent themselves as mainstream, even as they continue to embrace the Brotherhood’s radical views and maintain links to terrorists. With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community.” (Idem.)

23. “But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism. While their representatives speak about interfaith dialogue and integration on television their mosques preach hate and warn worshippers about the evils of Western soc

iety. While they publicly condemn the murder of commuters in Madrid and school children in Russia, they continue to raise money for Hamas and other terrorist organizations. Europeans, eager to create a dialogue with their increasingly disaffected Muslim minority, overlook this duplicity. The case is particularly visible in Germany, which retains a place of key importance in Europe, not only because of its location at the heart of Europe, but also because it played host to the first major wave of Muslim Brotherhood immigrants and is host to the best-organized Brotherhood presence. The German government’s reaction is also instructive if only to show the dangers of accepting Muslim Brotherhood rhetoric at face value, without looking at the broader scope of its activities.” (Idem.)

24. “The situation in Germany is particularly telling. More than anywhere else in Europe, the Muslim Brotherhood in Germany has gained significant power and political acceptance. Islamist organizations in other European countries now consciously follow the model pioneered by their German peers. During the 1950s and 1960s, thousands of Muslim students left the Middle East to study at German universities, drawn not only by the German institutions’ technical reputations but also by a desire to escape repressive regimes. Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser’s regime was especially vigorous in its attempts to root out the Islamist opposition. Beginning in 1954, several members of the Muslim Brotherhood fled Egypt to escape arrest or assassination. West Germany provided a welcome refuge. Bonn’s motivations were not simply altruistic. As terrorism expert Khalid Duran explained in his studies on jihadism in Europe, the West German government had decided to cut diplomatic relations with countries that recognized East Germany. When Egypt and Syria established diplomatic relations with the communist government, Bonn decided to welcome Syrian and Egyptian political refugees. Often, these dissidents were Islamists. Many members of the Muslim Brotherhood were already familiar with Germany. Several had cooperated with the Nazis before and during World War 11. Some had even, reportedly, fought in the infamous Bosnian Handschar division of the Schutzstaffel (SS).” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

25. “One of the Muslim Brotherhood’s first pioneers in Germany was Said Ramadan, the personal secretary [and son-in-law] of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna. Ramadan, an Egyptian who had led the Muslim Brotherhood’s irregulars in Palestine in 1948, moved to Geneva in 1958 and attended law school in Cologne. In Germany, he founded what has become one of Germany’s three main Muslim organizations, the Islamische Gemeinschaft Deutschland (Islamic Society of Germany, IGD) over which he presided from 1958 to 1968. Ramadan also co-founded the Muslim World League, a well-funded organization that the Saudi establishment uses to spread its radical interpretation of Islam throughout the world. The U.S. government closely monitors the activities of the Muslim World League, which it accuses of financing terrorism.” (Idem.)

26. Note the March 20, 2002 Operation Green Quest raids in the context of what has been set forth so far. “In March 2002, a U.S. Treasury Department-led task force raided the group’s Northern Virginia offices looking for documents tying the group to AI-Qaeda, Hamas, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In January 2004, the Senate Finance Committee asked the Internal Revenue Service for its records on the Muslim World League ‘as part of an investigation into possible links between nongovernmental organizations and terrorist financing networks.’ This privileged relationship with the oil-rich kingdom granted Ramadan an influx of money, which he used to fund the powerful Islamic Center of Geneva and to bankroll several financial and religious activities. Hani Ramadan, Sa’id’s son, currently runs the Islamic Center. Among its other board members is Sa’id’s other son, Tariq Ramadan, who recently made headlines in the United States when the Department of Homeland Security revoked his visa to teach at Notre Dame University. Sa’id Ramadan’s case is not isolated.” (Idem.)

27. Note the pivotal role of members of the IGD (the German Muslim Brotherhood) in the founding and operation of the Bank al-Taqwa: “Following Ramadan’s ten-year presidency of the IGD, Pakistani national Fazal Yazdani briefly led the IGD before Ghaleb Himmat, a Syrian with Italian citizenship, took the helm. During his long stewardship (1973-2002), Himmat shuttled between Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and the United States. Intelligence agencies around the world have long scrutinized Himmat’s terrorist connections. He is one of the founders of the Bank al-Taqwa, a powerful conglomerate dubbed by Italian intelligence, ‘Bank of the Muslim Brotherhood,’ which has financed terrorist groups since the mid-1990s if not earlier. Himmat helped Youssef Nada, one of the Muslim Brotherhood’s financial masterminds, run Al-Taqwa and a web of companies headquartered in locations such as Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Bahamas, Which maintain few regulations on monetary origin or destination. Both Himmat and Nada reportedly funneled large sums to groups such as Hamas and the Algerian Islamic Salvation Front and set up a secret credit line for a top associate of Osama bin Laden.” (Ibid.; pp. 2-3.)

28. “In November 2001, the U.S. Treasury Department designated both Himmat and Nada as terrorism financiers. According to Italian intelligence, the AI-Taqwa network also financed several Islamic centers throughout Europe and many Islamist publications, including RisalatuI lkhwan, the official magazine of the Muslim Brotherhood. After the U.S. Treasury Department designation, Himmat resigned from the IGD’s presidency. His successor was Ibrahim el-Zayat, a 36-year-old of Egyptian descent and the charismatic leader of numerous student organizations.” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

29. Noting the prominence in the IGD in the Brotherhood and the founding of al-Taqwa, the program goes on to highlight the profound influence on the IGD of the original Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. “The fact that IGD leaders Ramadan and Himmat are among the most prominent Muslim Brotherhood members of the last half-century suggests the links between the IGD and the Ikhwan. Moreover, reports issued by internal intelligence agencies from various German states openly call the IGD an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. In particular, according to one intelligence report, the Egyptian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood has dominated the IGD since its early days.” (Idem.)

30. Note said Ramadan. His activities recruiting assassins inside the United States is discussed in FTR#381. “The Muslim Brotherhood—led by Ramadan and Himmat—sponsored the construction of the imposing Islamic Center of Munich in 1960, aided by large donations from Middle Eastern rulers such as King Fahd of Saudi Arabia who, according to a 1967 Sueddeutsche Zeitung article, donated 80,000 marks. The Ministry of Interior of Nordrhein-Westfalen states that the Islamic Center of Munich has been one of the European headquarters for the Brotherhood since its foundation. The center publishes a magazine, Al-lslam, whose efforts (according to an Italian intelligence dossier), are financed by the Bank al-Taqwa. According to the interior minister of Baden-Wurtemberg, Al-lslam shows explicitly how the German Brothers reject the concept of a secular state. Its February 2002 issue, for example, states, ‘In the long run, Muslims cannot be satisfied with the acceptance of German family, estate, and trial law. … Muslims should aim at an agreement between the Muslims and the German state with the goal of a separate jurisdiction for Muslims.’” (Idem.)

31. “The IGD, of which the Islamic Center of Munich is one of the most important members, represents the main offshoot of the Egyptian Brotherhood in Germany. Bu

t the IGD is also the quintessential example of how the Muslim Brotherhood has gained power in Europe. The IGD has grown significantly over the years, and it now incorporates dozens of Islamic organizations throughout the country. Islamic centers from more than thirty German cities have joined its umbrella. Today, the IGD’s real strength lies in its cooperation with and sponsorship of many Islamic youth and student organizations across Germany.” (Idem.)

32. Note the IGD milieu’s connections to the WAMY. This organization has many tributaries, including several running in the direction of the GOP’s Islamist component, as well as the al-Taqwa milieu and Al Qaeda. “This focus on youth organizations came after Zayat’s succession. He understood the importance of focusing on the next generation of German Muslims and launched recruitment drives to get young Muslims involved in Islamic organizations. But a Meckenheim police report on the sharply dressed Zayat also reveals alarming connections. German authorities openly say he is a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. They also link him to the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), a Saudi nongovernmental organization that seeks to spread Wahhabism, the radical and intolerant Saudi interpretation of Islam, throughout the world with its literature and schools. WAMY, which falls under the umbrella of the Muslim World League, has the stated goal of ‘arming the Muslim youth with full confidence in the supremacy of the Islamic system over other systems.’ It is the largest Muslim youth organization in the world and can boast unparalleled resources. In 1991 WAMY published a book called Tawjihat Islamiya (Islamic Views) that stated, ‘Teach our children to love taking revenge on the Jews and the oppressors, and teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine and AI-Quds [Jerusalem] when they go back to Islam and make jihad for the sake of Allah.’ The sentiments in Tawjihat Islamiya are the rule rather than the exception. Many other WAMY publications are filled with strong anti-Semitic and anti-Christian rhetoric.” (Ibid.; pp. 3-4.)